Best Places In The World To Retire

The cost of living in Puerto Vallarta is really contingent on the kind of lifestyle you want to live. If you want to live on the ocean, and you want to go out to restaurants 2-3 times a week, you’re going to be looking at a cost of living that will be equivalent to the cost of living that you would have in Canada or in the US. 

 

Once you’ve been in Puerto Vallarta for a while, you tend not to go to the fancy restaurants as much as you used...

The cost of living in Puerto Vallarta is really contingent on the kind of lifestyle you want to live. If you want to live on the ocean, and you want to go out to restaurants 2-3 times a week, you’re going to be looking at a cost of living that will be equivalent to the cost of living that you would have in Canada or in the US. 

 

Once you’ve been in Puerto Vallarta for a while, you tend not to go to the fancy restaurants as much as you used to, and instead find the nice little hidden gems that are known by the locals and by the expats who have been here a while. You start going to these gems where you get great food for a lot less money, unlike in the high-end usual tourist places that you used to go to when you first arrived. This type of lifestyle certainly contributes to a lower cost of living.

 

If you want to live on the ocean in Puerto Vallarta, you’ll be paying higher Homeowner’s Association Fees, and if you are living in a condominium unit, you’ will have higher property taxes to pay. On the contrary, living away from the ocean provides a better cost of living. The cost of living really depends on your lifestyle. 

 

One of the biggest savings in Puerto Vallarta is in property taxes, which would cost you CA $4,000-5,000 (US $3,050 - $3,900) for a 2-bedroom condominium unit in Canada per year. In Puerto Vallarta, a similar 2-bedroom condominium unit right on the ocean will cost you US $150 in property taxes per year, which means significant savings.

 

Homeowners Association Fees in Puerto Vallarta depend greatly on the amenities in your condominium, such as the pool, the gym, and other large garden areas. Puerto Vallarta really is a nice choice, and what I like about Mexico in general is that it caters to everybody’s desire for his or her cost of living. 

 

As far as groceries are concerned, in Puerto Vallarta, you can go to the local grocery store where you pay a higher price for the goods, or you can go to the farmers’ market where you can get fresh fruits directly from the farmers and pay a lot less. 

 

The property values here in Puerto Vallarta and what you can get in Canada or in the US are fairly different. In Canada or in the US, properties that cost between CA $750,000 - $2 million (US $570,000 - $1.5 million,) in Puerto Vallarta will only cost about CA $500,000 (US $380,000) to be on the ocean, which is an equivalent property. That means you’re able to save first in the capital that you’re paying towards your home. 

 

The cost of living in Puerto Vallarta can be very low. For example, my cost of living expenses here in Puerto Vallarta for the lifestyle that I choose to have are about a third less here than it is in Canada, and it could be lower if I wasn’t so addicted to some amazing restaurants that I frequent here in Puerto Vallarta, and if I didn’t like to drive around and use up gas. The choices you make will also dictate your cost of living, but I would say that you’re looking at saving about a third in your cost of living.  

 

(Pictured: Great food at The Lateral Restaurant in Bucerias, near Puerto Vallarta.)

Shopping in the Algarve is good but not excellent. It’s not like 5th Avenue and it’s not Oxford Street, nor is it the Champs-Elysees, although the Champs-Elysees is quite complicated. You wouldn’t come to the Algarve to do your super-duper Christmas shopping. You wouldn’t come here to find a huge variety of high end luxury items. I can think of only one or two locations where there is a little bit of a cluster of high end stores and people might go there if...

Shopping in the Algarve is good but not excellent. It’s not like 5th Avenue and it’s not Oxford Street, nor is it the Champs-Elysees, although the Champs-Elysees is quite complicated. You wouldn’t come to the Algarve to do your super-duper Christmas shopping. You wouldn’t come here to find a huge variety of high end luxury items. I can think of only one or two locations where there is a little bit of a cluster of high end stores and people might go there if they are visiting and they need a special present.

 

The main focus on the shopping here in Algarve is pragmatic. There are half a dozen or more shopping centers across the Algarve. The largest ones are in Faro and just outside Albufeira in a place called Guia and also in Portimão. Those are the more obvious locations in which to find malls. Then there are smaller shopping centers in next level of towns going down like in Tavira, Loulé, Lagos, etc. And then there is still the existence of smaller shops like the bakery, the green grocer, and the like.

 

For clothes shopping, electronics, and furniture, we have medium-sized stores scattered in a retail park, which tend to be in bigger cities or alternatively, in the center of town. You might find a special clothes store in the center of Lagos or a special jewelry store in the center of Tavira, or a cork store that sells products made of cork in Silves. You will find these kinds of specialty stores in the towns and villages around the Algarve.

 

Generally speaking, the prices depend on the basis of comparison, but anyone coming from North America and Northern Europe find that shopping in the Algarve to be generally cheap. However, there are some exceptions. They would never find it more expensive than where they came from but they would quickly get accustomed to the lower cost of living and what they would see is that certain items are more expensive than others. Electricity, cars, fuel, and electronic items are not as cheap in the Algarve as one would expect, given the low cost of living in Portugal, particularly if you are coming from the US, where electronic good are so cheap. Electronics products might be even more expensive in the Algarve than they would be in the US. But generally speaking, if you are coming from the UK, you could easily cut 30% to 40% off your cost of living to live as a good as, if not a better quality of life.

 

(Moorish castle and hillside town of Silves, Portugal, pictured.)

I haven’t met an expat in Corozal I don’t like.  I tend to like people anyway Corozal has really, really nice people. 

 

Here’s a way to illustrate this.  In Texas I might have 2 or 3 people I could call if I broke down on the side of the road in the middle of the night but I feel like most of everybody I know in Corozal would come to help me. 

 

Well, there’s quite a number of expats in...

I haven’t met an expat in Corozal I don’t like.  I tend to like people anyway Corozal has really, really nice people. 

 

Here’s a way to illustrate this.  In Texas I might have 2 or 3 people I could call if I broke down on the side of the road in the middle of the night but I feel like most of everybody I know in Corozal would come to help me. 

 

Well, there’s quite a number of expats in Corozal from Canada. It seems like more Canadians all the time are coming down. There are a good number of US citizens. Most are retired from some type of non-professional job; anything from a former prison guard to retired navy to school teachers-- that sort of thing.  One of the things that attract them is the ability to stretch their pension dollars a whole lot further.

 

There are some young people but generally you’re not going to see anybody under about their 40s and up.  There are not a lot of families, although some come.  The school there is adequate but I don’t know that I would want to have my kids complete their entire education in Corozal. A year or two would be kind of neat and a great experience but if you’re getting college prepared, you probably want to do your high school especially in the States.

 

(Pictured: Copper Bank Inn, Corozal, Belize.)